What You Can Do?

There are many ways to support the campaigning work of Stop Repression in Hong Kong,
both inside Hong Kong and internationally. With your support we can win!

Sign our petition and get your friends to sign.

Like and share our website and facebook page on social media, invite all
your friends to like and share.

If you are a member of a trade union or political organisation ask your
organisation to pass a motion supporting the campaign. Your organisation can
also add its name to the petition. If you want to do this, but need more
information to explain the case, go to our Campaign materials (
HERE ) section where
you can download our leaflet, statement, and other material. If you want
more help, contact us here (
EMAIL
) and give a short description of what advice or support you need and which
organisation / country you are active in.

Write about the Stop Repression in Hong Kong campaign in your union or
university newspaper, magazine, or website. Our campaign can also provide
speakers to address meetings and answer questions about the situation in
Hong Kong and China, through an online video conference. Trade unions can
be asked to make a donation to our campaign fund.

If you are a student or active in a student organisation ask your
organisation to pass a motion supporting the campaign. You can organise a
meeting on campus about the repression in Hong Kong and China and ask us to
provide a speaker (see above). You can reprint and use our leaflets and
posters to spread information about our campaign – go to our Campaign
materials (
HERE ) section. You can
also reprint leaflets in simplified and traditional Chinese to distribute to
Chinese and Hong Kong students who study in large numbers at overseas
universities. Some of these students do not know the full extent of the
repression that is taking place and even those who do can appreciate the
opportunity to discuss this with others.

Contact members of parliament and ask them to support the campaign and sign
the petition.

Start a local campaign group to spread the campaign’s material and arrange
meetings and activists. Contact us for help. (
EMAIL
)

Organise and join in protest actions to help put pressure on the Chinese and
Hong Kong authorities and draw attention to violations of basic democratic
rights. Some protests are coordinated through this website and our facebook
page – the more countries and participants reached, the more effective the
protests can be!

Use the media and social media! Spread news about any of the above
activities. Post and share images of meetings, protests and leafleting
campaigns. Contact overseas Chinese media as well as local media when
organising activities – and be sure reports to Stop Repression in Hong
Kong. (
EMAIL
)

Q&A on the Hong Kong Government’s Crackdown

Hong Kong’s democracy movement, which has mobilised millions in the past 20
years, is under attack.
The government is rigging elections, jailing activists and rolling out new laws
to force obedience to the Chinese dictatorship. Our "questions and answers"
deals with the most common questions.

Is Hong Kong a Democracy?

Hong Kong has never had a democratic political system. Its government is
not elected. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s global
‘Democracy Index’, Hong Kong is ranked 71 in the world, on the same
level as Paraguay and Namibia. Hong Kong’s Chief Executive is chosen
once every five years by a committee (1,194 members) dominated by
billionaires and millionaires. The Chinese regime controls the process –
only its candidates can win. The current Chief Executive, Carrie Lam
Cheng Yuet-ngor, was chosen in March 2017 with just 777 votes.

Why is the Hong Kong government banning election candidates and
disqualifying elected legislators?

It wants to quell the democracy movement and demands for genuine
elections (universal suffrage). It follows orders from the Chinese
regime, which fears the democracy struggle will ‘infect’ China,
endangering its hold on power. Six opposition legislators have been
disqualified – referred to as ‘DQ’ – from the Legislative Council
(Legco) using new rules to declare the oaths they swore were “invalid”.
The government has banned more than a dozen individuals from standing in
elections.
Some parties are also now banned as in the case of student-led
Demosisto. Some former election candidates are banned because the courts
put them in jail – on government orders. Even Hong Kong’s
mini-constitution the Basic Law says everyone has a right to stand in
elections, but in reality this is not the case.

Is the government acting within the law

It is trying to hide its political agenda of increased authoritarian
control behind a smokescreen of upholding the law. The government’s
Justice Department ordered the court to ‘re-sentence’ young protesters
in August 2017, who were initially given non-custodial sentences
(community work) after being found guilty of “unlawful assembly”. All
were all re-sentenced to prison terms of between six and 13 months.
(some of these sentences have since been overturned by the Court of
Final Appeal).
In the case of the “invalid oaths” used to throw out six legislators,
this came from a completely made-up law imposed by China’s National
People’s Congress (NPC). The NPC, an arm of China’s dictatorship, can
make binding ‘interpretations’ of the Basic Law – so the unelected
NPC is the ultimate power over the courts in Hong Kong.

Does the Basic Law protect democratic rights

The Basic Law enshrines basic civil liberties and some democratic
rights. But its commitment to universal suffrage is weak and
contradictory – saying this is an “ultimate aim”. It states that the
Chief Executive (and therefore the government) “will be appointed by
the Central People’s Government on the basis of the results of
elections or consultations” (Article 3, section 4). The Basic Law is so
full of caveats it’s a gift to a despotic regime like China.
The Basic Law was never endorsed in a democratic vote. Its democratic
elements were included under mass political pressure. It was imposed on
Hong Kong in the 1980s after a deal was struck between British colonial
regime and the Chinese dictatorship, through an elite Basic Law
committee that was dominated by the two governments and Hong Kong’s
wealthiest capitalists. The Basic Law outlaws any other economic system
than capitalism, until 2047, and also bans budget deficits – a key
tenet of neo-liberal economics.

Was it better under British rule

Many people today say it was better, but they generally mean there was
less poverty and inequality. And from the 1970s to the 1990s, the
housing crisis wasn’t as extreme as it is now. One thing it wasn’t,
however, was democratic. The British were colonialists not liberators.
They ruled Hong Kong for 156 years and never once held an election
for government.
Nowadays the British establishment is largely silent over Hong Kong,
because it is more concerned about billions of dollars worth of business
deals with the Chinese regime.

Is the Legco democratic

Only half the seats in Legco are elected. It was designed – by the
British – to provide a ‘democratic’ cover for an unelected government.
In Legco elections the pro-democracy opposition regularly win a big
majority, roughly 60 percent of the votes, but because of its
undemocratic make-up the pro-government camp win 60 percent of the
seats.
Today, as part of the government’s authoritarian crackdown, the powers
of the Legco have been further weakened. After expelling opposition
legislators last year the pro-government side had a large enough
majority to re-write the Legco rules – a self-inflicted “castration”.

If the Legco is powerless why does the government need to rig elections
and ban candidates

Despite its limited powers, the Legco has become an important platform
for the struggle for democratic rights. The opposition legislators can
lift the veil on government corruption, pro-billionaire policies and
the new threat to democratic rights.
The moderate pro-democracy parties, which shy away from mass struggle
and favour conciliation with the regime, have lost ground to more
radical groups – these got a quarter of the total vote in 2016. This
reflects mass radicalisation and frustration that the democracy struggle
has arrived at a dead-end. So now the government is further rigging an
already undemocratic system, to keep more radical forces out of the
Legco. Ultimately, this will just shift the focus away from the Legco,
towards the streets.

How does the government control the Legco if the opposition wins 60
percent of the popular vote

Because the Legco is not democratic. – half its seats are filled from
so-called functional constituencies, controlled by big business and
special interest groups. Only around 240,000 people are eligible to
vote in functional constituencies out of a total electorate numbering
3.7 million, so each functional vote is worth 12.5 ordinary votes.
Results of 2016 Legco elections, showing how the elitist functional
constituencies overrule the popular vote and guarantee government
and big business control.

What are the main demands of the democracy movement

The main demand is to end the current undemocratic system by introducing
genuine universal suffrage.
But the Chinese dictatorship fears that such a seemingly modest reform
in Hong Kong would set off a chain reaction. So rather than reform, the
dictatorship is moving in the opposite direction. That is why it reneged
on a vaguely worded promise, made in 2005 (in the face of massive
political protests), to allow a phased transition to “universal
suffrage”.
What was eventually offered was nothing like real universal suffrage but
a manipulated Iranian-style election system. This was the infamous
‘831 ruling’ (31 August 2014), which sparked the 2014 Umbrella
Revolution.

What was the Umbrella Revolution and what did it achieve

This mass movement, with umbrellas used to protect demonstrators against
police pepper spray, began on 28 September 2014, after the government
used heavy force to disperse youth protests. The Umbrella Revolution
did not have a developed list of demands or clear leaders. It was a
largely spontaneous mass rejection of Beijing’s fake universal suffrage.
Up to 2.3 million people joined the protests. Thousands occupied the
streets for a total of 79 days – longer than the Tiananmen Square
protests in 1989.
The government rode out the storm, harassing the protests with police
and triad gang raids, court injunctions, and a media barrage saying the
movement was “losing support”. Its secret weapon was exhaustion.
Occupy-type movements – as seen in many countries – can be a good
starting point for a mass movement for political change, but occupation
alone has never won. There is a need to escalate to strikes and to build
mass democratic committees to direct the struggle. Against a powerful
dictatorship the democracy struggle needs to be based on the working
class, which is not just society’s biggest class, but also the force
that makes the economy and society run. In South Korea and South Africa
mass strikes by the workers tipped the balance in the struggle against
dictatorships.

How can the government’s undemocratic policies be stopped

Only by mass resistance. The first step is to realise that there will
never be a “final” attack – disqualification, jailing, undemocratic laws
– these are all pieces of a long-term agenda by the Chinese dictatorship
to extend its control over Hong Kong and shut down the democracy
movement. Their model for Hong Kong is Singapore or Macau – with a
much-weakened democratic opposition. So, the fight back cannot solely
focus on court cases or elections, necessary as these are, and much
less on waiting passively for the storm to pass.
Those democratic forces that are serious about resisting the
authoritarian crackdown should help initiate a democratic conference
open to all groups to discuss a one-day Hong Kong-wide strike as part
of a strategy to relaunch mass resistance. This could begin with the
students. A new democracy movement needs to be built with a working
class core – a new party of grassroots workers and the poor. Most
parties today have become vehicles for one or two ‘leading
personalities’ mostly active on social media. But what’s needed
is a democratic organisation with a mass membership of 10,000s, rooted
in campaigning and struggle. Such a force could coordinate the fight
back and appeal across the border to the Chinese masses to join the
anti-authoritarian struggle.

Is the struggle in Hong Kong gaining international support and can that
make a difference

For decades the main pro-democracy parties paid little attention to
international solidarity because they believed democracy was “only a
matter of time”. This was never true: democracy has only ever triumphed
as a result of mass revolutionary struggle. They also wrongly believed
there was significant support for democratic change from foreign
governments. But as Beijing steps up its attacks on democratic rights,
this has not met with any serious protests from capitalist companies
and governments. They have built strong ties with the Chinese
dictatorship based on a common interest in putting money before
‘politics’.
There is enormous potential sympathy around the world for the struggle
for democratic rights in Hong Kong and China, but not among ministers
and CEOs. It is among the workers, youth, women and other oppressed
layers. This is where the international solidarity movement against
authoritarian rule needs to be built.

Leaflets

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Every amount no matter how small is a big help!